Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting

Yuriy had his birthday 2 weeks ago, so I decided to cook him a cake. Somehow we ended up eating whole cake just by ourselves; so we will need to work out more now

I’ve used this simple recipe of homemade cake which is very popular in Russia and other countries of ex-USSR. Because of the sour cream frosting it is often called “smetannik”, which basically mean “made of sour cream” in russian.

If you decide to make this cake – make sure you have enough time to let sour cream to soak to into each layer of the cake after it is assembled; 6-8 hours are usually enough. If you prepare cake a night before you are going to serve it and then put to fridge – it is even better.

Ingredients:

Cake:

3.5oz of butter

2 eggs

14 oz of sweetened condensed milk (1 can)

1/2 cup of all purpose flour

1-1 1/2 tablespoons of cocoa powder

1 teaspoon of baking soda

White vinegar, about 1 tablespoon

Frosting:

20-25oz of original sour cream

1/3 cup of sugar

How to prepare, step-by-step:

Prepare ingredients: if you leave butter on the room temperature until it so soft so can be mixed in, then you can skip next step. One more word about sweetened condensed milk – I’ve used the same brand which exist in Russia (got it from local russian shop), I never tried local US condensed milk, so I can’t say if it will work the same:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 1

To melt butter: take 2 cooking pots: one slightly smaller than another, fill bigger pot with water and bring it to boil. Put butter to smaller pot and place it inside of the bigger one, so it is about 1” deep into the water, let butter to melt completely. Then take the cooking pot out of the water and set it aside – butter should cool down to room temperature before it can be added to the batter (by the way, you don’t need the other pot as well, so don’t forget to turn the heat under it off):

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 2

Add eggs to the mixer bowl and beat together on slow speed with wire attachement, just until mixed, then slowly add melted butter cooled till room temperature:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 3

Continue mixing until well incorporated:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 4

Mix in sweetened condensed milk:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 5

Turn mixer off. Put a teaspoon of baking sode into bigger tablespoon and sprinkle with white vinegar, then fast pour bubbled soda to the batter:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 6

If there is still soda powder left in the spoon repeat sprinkling it with vinegar until it is all done:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 7

Start mixer on slow speed and slowly mix in all flour, spoon by spoon. Continue mixing until batter is homogenous:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 8

Preheat oven till 350F. Pour about half of batter to the springform greased with butter:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 9

Put springform to oven and bake for 15-20 minutes (start checking it with a wooden toothpick at about 15th minute: pierce it till the bottom, if toothpick comes out clean then light cake layer is ready):

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 10

Take springform from the oven (but don’t turn heat off, you will need it again), let it cool a bit, then carefully get light cake layer put and put a side to cool down:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 11

While springform is cooling down, mix about 1 table spoon of cocoa powder to the rest of batter in mixer bowl until well incorporated:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 12

Clean springform with paper towel and grease it again with butter; pour there all of the batter and put springform to the oven:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 13

Bake dark cake layer for 15-20 mins on 350F until ready (again try with wooden toothpick). Then remove springform from the oven and remove cake from the springform; set it aside and let it cool down till room temperature. Now you can turn heat in oven off:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 14

When both light and dark cakes are cooled down, cut about 1/3 of the inch from each cake’s edge in circle with a small knife and remove formed crusts:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 15

Crumble each crust into the bowl, you will use those crumbles for decoration:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 16

Then cut both cakes in equal halves using a long knife:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 17

Now it is time to prepare frosting. For this pour sour cream into deep bowl and add sugar:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 18

Mix them together until sugar dissolves completely:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 19

Arrange bottom part of dark cake in the middle of the cake stand or big flat plate:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 20

Spread sour cream on the cake layer using frosting spatula:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 21

Pierce bottom part of light cake layer with a fork in several places from both sides:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 22

Arrange it over the black layer on the cake stand:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 23

Spread a layer of sour cream on top:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 24

Pierce left part of black cake with a fork the same way you did before with white one:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 25

Put it on top:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 26

And again cover with a layer of sour cream:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 27

Pierce last part of white cake with a fork from both sides and put it on top:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 28

Cover with layer of sour cream again:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 29

Using spatula spread sour cream on the sides of the cake. Remove redundant cream from the bottom of the stand with spoon, wipe stand with paper towel if needed:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 30

Now it is the time to decorate: use crumbles you’ve prepared earlier and spread them evenly on the sides:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 31

Then use the rest for the top side:

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting Recipe: Step 32

Put cake to the fridge for several hours, 6-8 hours are good for layers to soak sour cream. After that is ready, slice it up and enjoy:

22 Responses to “Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting”

I love this cake! So moist and tasty. We call it “Den’ i noch'” – Night and Day – because of the alternating light and dark layers. My batter recipe is similar except I use sour cream rather than condensed milk. I also use sour cream for the frosting although once I get better at making custard, I am going to try using that. In Russia, my mom and grandma typically used custard-based frosting for this cake except it came from a mix and all you needed to do was add milk (I think) and heat until boiling. For the topping, I typically use grated chocolate and/or chopped walnuts.

Oh my goodness I am so exited. My grandmother used to make this cake, we too called it “den’ i noch.” She passed away and never gave anyone the recipe and I have been searching for one for so long. thank you so much I am making this cake soon!

I can say I’m a good cook, but I’ve never been a good baker: I can mess the simplest things up with baking, so typically on New Year I’ve always ordered cake from a Russian bakery. We’re in the US until the summer and I have no access to a Russian bakery, so I decided to try your recipe in order to have a good cake for New Year! It was very, very successful! Even me, a horrible baker, was able to make it! Wonderful recipe! This cake really raised my spirits for New Year and everyone loved it!

My spring form is 9.5 inches (it is about 24 cm), I think silicone form should work just fine, but I never used such.

About lemon juice, wiki says it can be a substitute for vinegar in baking, but again I never tried it myself. Amount of vinegar in this recipe isn’t that big, it is used only to activate baking soda, you will not taste it in the cake most probably.

My mom and grandma both make a very similar cake. My family is from Ukraine so style of cake is very typical. Personally I love it. Im going to use your recipe and surprise my mom with it. She thinks all I cook is American food so this should set her straight. lol.

Julia, reading the recipe again I note two measurements: (1) 0.5 cups flour equals= ? and (2) 0.3 cups sugar Would you be so kind to clarify for me in: 1/4. 1/3. 1/2, 3/4 or 1 cup. I would really appreciate it. Thanks.

I’ve made this cake twice now and it is delicious. Here’s a tip: For the frosting, if you fold your sugar into your sour cream with a spoon, instead of beating or whisking, it will be thicker instead of running everywhere.